Singletary season wrap-up: “We didn’t accomplish what we wanted, but we didn’t go backwards”

Right to a long, interesting Mike Singletary season-ending press conference in which he generally supported (but NOT effusively) both Alex Smith and Jimmy Raye.

I’d say it’s 50-50 that Raye is replaced by QBs coach Mike Johnson as offensive coordinator (or chief gameplanner), either officially or secretly, by the start of next season.

Smith? I think he’ll be the 49ers’ starting QB next season, but Singletary wasn’t at all hiding the thought about trying to find a better QB in the off-season. Just doubt they can do that given the market.

—–SINGLETARY transcript/

-Opening: Good afternoon. (Injury discussion EDITED.)

As far kind of looking at our season in coming to an end yesterday… I just think it’s one of those situations where, you know, you took a step this year. Not as much of a step as I would’ve liked to have taken, or the team.

I think I mentioned to you before, it’s disappointing to be at this stage and still talking football, still playing football, and we’re not. That’s not exactly what I had in mind.

But nonetheless, the most important thing going forward is we ended the season on a winning note. And you know, it gives us the momentum to go into the off-season and do the things that we need to do, put the missing pieces together, and go from there.

As far as the off-season is concerned, of course, we’re evaluating film. I’m talking to all of our players today and tomorrow. Just meeting with them and listening to what they have to say and saying what I need to say and at the same time just getting a feel for where they are.

Then after that, I need to meet with all the coaches this week as well. And have conversation with them about the things that we need to do better going forward, going into the off-season.

But all of that’s in the off-season. All of that starts this week. And what we’re going to do in the off-season, the plan that we’re going to have in the off-season, the free agents, and all of the other stuff, that’ll stay in the off-season. Because right now we have to make sure that we go through the film and get the evaluations done before we can really talk about something out in the future.

Any other questions that you have?

-Q: At this time do you plan any staff changes? Have any coaches been let go?

-SINGLETARY: Uh… at this time right now, I think the biggest thing I want to do is complete the next couple of days. As far as coaching changes and all those things, we’re going to evaluate that and go from there.

-Q: Do you go into the off-season presuming that Alex Smith is the starting quarterback next year?

-SINGLETARY: I will say at this point… I would say Alex Smith is the quarterback going forward. But the thing that I want you to understand is, you know, we’re always trying to get better at that position. We’re constantly evaluating.

It does not mean that we will not sign another quarterback. We’re always looking at… that’s a very important position, we’re always looking at the best possible situation, period.

-Q: Have you formed a priority list of what you want to do?

-SINGLETARY: Well, I think the most important thing are the next two days. I think it’s very important to sit down with every player we have and really get a feel for where they are. I just want to get a feel for, get a chance to look at ‘em, talk to ‘em, look at their eyes and body language, the whole nine yards.

Some guys feel good about the season, some guys don’t. Some guys have various opinions from A to Z. And I want to hear what they are, whether they’re positive-negative about me, the staff, the organization, whatever it might be. I just think it’s important to get the feedback.

That’s the most important thing. The next thing is to sit down and really talk to the coaches and get the feedback from the coaches. Look at the film and really take our time, take my time going through the staff and looking at things that we need to do a better job of and try and get my arms around that.

So that’s the most important thing. And then after that’s solved, after that’s situated, then we go to the next step. But that’s the most important. This week is critical in my mind.

-Q: When the season started, a lot of people had questions about your offensive coordinator and QB. The season’s over and maybe there are still those questions. Do you have questions about those two aspects? How do you feel about them?

-SINGLETARY: I don’t really have a question about the coordinator. Now, as far as the execution is concerned… I think when I look at Jimmy Raye, there are just a lot of different things that come across the table this year.

On one hand, I’m very pleased with his ability and the staff’s to be able to do a 180-degree turn and try and put together a different style of offense for a different style of quarterback.

And at the same time, just one of those things that you have to continue to address, you know, third downs, that sort of thing, moving the chains, being consistent.

I don’t think it’s a matter of another coordinator. I think it’s a matter of putting the pieces together, identifying exactly the offense that you’re going to run, identifying the kind of offensive line that you need in order to run that. I think we have a lot of pieces in place. I just think it’s a matter of getting all the pieces in the right places.

-Q: Is the first priority with you and Jimmy to figure out what offense you want as you head into the off-season program?

-SINGLETARY: Oh, it’ll start way before then. It’ll start this week. I just think it’s important, the earlier the better. That we get on the same page, clarify what it is. Identify, here it is, this is what we want, this is what it’s going to be. These are the pieces that we have, these are the pieces that we need, and we go from there.

-Q: Jimmy obviously wasn’t hired to throw the ball this much, he’s not a spread guy. Is it crazy to say that if you’re going to throw this much he’s not the right guy?

-SINGLETARY: No, because I don’t want to throw that much. The thing that I want to do… it’s the thing that I said when Jimmy was hired. I want a balance.

To me, to throw the ball as much as we had to throw the ball, it’s just something I think Jimmy had to get his arms around. And I think for a few weeks, it just kind of took us a while to really say, OK, this is what we’re going to do for now, but wait a minute, we’ve got Frank over here… we’ve got to make sure we implement him.

I just think it’s one of those things, as I’ve talked about before, making sure that we get together and identify this is exactly what we’re going to do, this is who we are. But I’ve never gotten away from the fact that I want to be a balanced offense.

I don’t want to be a throwing offense, I don’t want to be a running offense, but when we run the ball, I want to be able to run the ball with a physicality that… When we run the ball, I just want to be able to do that without hesitating or blinking or anything like that. We’re going to run the ball.

-Q: Is there a possibility that Mike Johnson gets a greater role with the offense or maybe even becomes the coordinator?

-SINGLETARY: I think right now… we’ve got a lot of conversation that we have to have. Right now, Jimmy is the coordinator. And I just think that it’s a matter of putting pieces in the right places and going from there.

-Q: What you did in the last four weeks, with Gore getting over 20 carries, getting 100 yards 3 out of 4 games, is that the offense you want?

-SINGLETARY: I think for Frank Gore to do the things that he’s been able to do and I think the second half of the offense yesterday, just kind of opening it up and you’re in 2-2 personnel, you’re in 2-1 personnel, you’re in 1-1, you’re in 1-2… that’s more of what we want to get to.

Keeping a balance, but at the same time being unpredictable. Them not having an idea of what the heck we’re doing. And make sure that on third down we have a great plan for that.

-Q: Do you think you have the personnel on offense to achieve that balance?

-SINGLETARY: Yes, I do.

-Q: The players are already here?

-SINGLETARY: Yes. I think that on both sides of the ball, in order for us to get better on both sides of the ball, I think we’re a couple players here or there, on both sides of the ball.

-Q: Can you go through a list of positions you’d like to address? Would it start with offensive tackle?

-SINGLETARY: I think right now in all honesty I really think we have to evaluate. Because right now there could be a number of things in my mind where I think the priority is. But when you look at the film, it’s kind of just like when the game is over…. (EDIT)

I think for us, in order to make wise decisions, we really have to evaluate and really evaluate closely what we need to do before we begin to prioritize what that is. We’re going to take our time and go through that thoroughly and make the appropriate decisions going forward.

-Q: After your first full season, how would you judge the job you did?

-SINGLETARY: Well, for me? I would say OK. It’s OK. I think the most important thing that happened this year is… at the very least, we could finish 8-8. We took a small step towards where we want to go. I think we got a little bit better, as crazy as that sounds.

But I feel… I know how our guys feel, looking at them this morning and talking with them this morning… They want to play. They want to play this week. And to not be in that position, like I said, it’s disappointing. A bitter taste, but at the same time, we’ve got to learn from it. Because no one stopped us but us.

So those are the things we have to correct, those are the things we have to address, and things we will address going forward.

-Q: You had a hard time getting started in games, particularly on the road…

-SINGLETARY: I can’t say right now, identify, put my finger on it, this is what it was. I just know that most of the games we played on the road, five or six of those teams were pretty good football teams. I think No. 1, when you’re playing a good football team, you’ve got to be together, you’ve got to be ready when you get out there. (EDIT)

-Q: The players today said they have to learn how to finish…

-SINGLETARY: I think finishing is really all about a mindset. I think you go through the season and you end up 8-8. And it’s one of those things where you can look back and you can point towards a couple of games and say, ‘You know what? We finish this game, we finish this game, we’re in the playoffs. This is ridiculous. What the heck is this?’

So you can taste it. You can begin to… you can see it. It’s not like we’re 2-14 and we’re thinking, ‘Wow, we’ve got to finish and we’ve got a chance to be in the playoffs.’ It’s not like that.

So I just think it’s one of those things that after the season, after this season, guys can really look at it and visually, really put their finger on a couple games, if we make this play, we make that play, we’ve got a chance. We’re there.

I think going into OTAs, you kind of bring that into it, there’s an excitement, there’s an expectation. I just think there’s a progression that you have to work through and you get to that point where you know can do it because you came so close the year before. Now it’s just a matter of, ‘Let’s complete this thing. Let’s get out there. Let’s make this happen.’

I think it really is a process. Finishing is something that definitely is more of an attitude than anything else.

-Q: You were pretty clear it was going to happen this year and it didn’t. Does not making the playoffs make you less certain about next year or more certain?

-SINGLETARY: Umm… I’ll put it this way. I guess the best way to handle that question is this: I think this year, the goal that we set was to get into the playoffs. And of course you play with fire, you get burned and you don’t get there.

Going into this off-season, I’m not going to focus so much on this and that. Thing that I want us to focus on is executing and going out and just getting the pieces that we need and just doing what we do. Just doing our job. Nothing more. Nothing less. Let’s go out there and just get our jobs done. Because at the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to. It just comes down to executing one game after the next.

Just doing your job. If everybody does their job, we don’t have to do extra. No one has to be Superman. Just do your job. And everything will take care of itself. So at the end of the day, I feel very…

I think about this week, I’m excited to get through this week and then I’m excited to get through the next thing and that is beginning to put the other pieces together that we need. Identifying what those are and then putting those pieces together in place.

The one thing I will say is that I know that it’s not going to happen just because we put those pieces in place. We’ve got to work. We’ve got to make those things happen. We’ve got to keep working.

And we’ve got to understand that I don’t care how close we were, we weren’t. And you can come close again. But I just want to focus on, let’s get the pieces right and let’s focus on the detail and let’s everybody do their jobs as best as they can possibly do it.

And I think everything else will take care of itself.

-Q: Will this be a playoff team next year?

-SINGLETARY: Everything else will take care of itself. Everything else will take care of itself. I will say this, I believe we will be a very good football team next year. A very good football team’s not going to be at home.

-Q: Is Aubrayo Franklin a priority to re-sign?

-SINGLETARY: All of our guys are priorities. And we’ll have to get through the evaluation process and put all the pieces together. But all of the guys are priorities…

-Q: How do you see Nate Clements fitting?

-SINGLETARY: Nate’s a good football player. We want good football players. And once again, the evaluation process… but looking forward to talking to Nate. Really believe that Nate’s a very important part of our football team.

-Q: Could he be switched to safety?

-SINGLETARY: I think he’s a cornerback.

-Q: When you said you could possibly sign a quarterback, are you talking about a veteran quarterback who could be the No. 1 guy next year?

-SINGLETARY: Alex Smith is the starting quarterback right now. If we sign a quarterback this off-season, we’ll see where it goes. But I don’t want to get into, ‘Well, we could sign a veteran quarterback who could become our No. 1…’ I don’t want to get into all of that.

Alex Smith is the starting quarterback right now and hopefully this off-season, if one happens to show up or however that works out… there’s always a possibility of signing another quarterback depending on what the situation is, depending on where that put us in terms of the cap and all that other stuff.

But I just think it’s very important to keep in mind that right now, just knowing step 1, Alex Smith is the starting quarterback.

-Q: Do you think Smith progressed throughout this season?

-SINGLETARY: I think I saw steady progress. Now, when I look at the last couple of games or whatever, one thing that I want you guys to understand is this: Anytime that Alex goes out and he plays a football game, you guys can say, ‘Well, Alex won five games. Or Alex won 10 games.’ However that is.

I never look at the film and say, when I cut the film off, ‘Alex Smith won another game.’ Everybody else has to do their job. And I think that’s really what it comes down to. But as far as, when I look at Alex, when I look at yesterday, he made the plays that he was supposed to make.

I thought he made some good plays and some good opportunities. I think he hung in there when he was getting hit constantly, when they were hitting him… I think one of the biggest things that he did yesterday that was very important, he didn’t turn over the ball. And in a game like yesterday’s, it was very easy to get really careless and throw the ball to the other team and I think he did a very good job of staying focused. (EDIT)

-Q: Can you pick one game that really stands out as the heartbreaker this season?

-SINGLETARY: Minnesota.

-Q: What happened there, do you think?

-SINGLETARY: 12 seconds.

-Q: If you had one that game…

-SINGLETARY: I don’t want to get into all of that. No. We didn’t make the playoffs. We just didn’t make it. 8-8, that’s it.

-Q: Will you watch the post-season?

-SINGLETARY: I will watch.

-Q: Anything in particular?

-SINGLETARY: I will watch simply because we will probably play some of those teams next year. I will watch because playoff atmosphere’s really different. And I know some of our guys won’t watch, but I challenge them to watch because it’s important you see teams that have earned the right to be there, what are they doing, how are they playing, what did they do when you saw the game, what do you remember? I think it’s important to learn from those things. Even though they are difficult to watch, watch them.

-Q: It’s possible that you’re giving up a home game to play in London next year. You were a good home team. Is that a good thing to do?

-SINGLETARY: You know what? That’s all in the hands of the NFL, the commissioner and however that falls down. Whatever they say, we’ll look at it and we’ll go from there.

-Q: Giving up a home game, is that a big deal?

-SINGLETARY: To me, I always say, if we’re going to play in a parking lot, if we’re going to play in London, if we figure out a way to get to Pluto, I really don’t care. We’re going to play the football game. We’re going to play the game.

(EDITED QUESTION)

-SINGLETARY (partial wrap-up): I’m very thankful for our guys. I’m very thankful for the way they fought through and fought to the end. And I think the guys learned a lot this year. I think we learned a lot about ourselves. I think we learned a lot about… what we can’t do. What we can’t do in order to be a great football team. Things we can’t do. And things that we must do better.

It was a great… lesson to learn. Once again: 8-8, neutral. That means you’re not going forward, you’re not going backward. So… we’ve got to get into the off-season and start the wheel rolling forward and go from there.

-Q: What was the message you gave the team today?

-SINGLETARY: The message was kind of… like the message in the press conference. Just, you have to remember… we’re 8-8. It’s a sad thing to say for me, to say that this is the best record for this franchise in seven years.

But at the same time, it is reality. It is what it is. And we took a very small step. And our guys… I just want them to focus on… don’t leave the room with your head down. We fought through a lot.

We did not accomplish what we wanted to accomplish, but we didn’t go backwards.

And this off-season, we will find a way to get the necessary pieces that we need to get the wheels to roll forward and gain momentum into the next season.

-Q: When do the players come back?

-SINGLETARY: Probably March 15, 16, something like that.

-Q: Did you learn how tough it is to win NFL games?

-SINGLETARY: You know what I’ve learned? I’ve learned how hard it is to be consistent. Not to win. But to be consistent. That’s what I’ve learned. I don’t think it’s hard to win. But I think it’s very difficult to be consistent.

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I’m certain the old classic Niners with Walsh and Eddie D. would never settle for a QB they would describe as “meek” “anal (oof!)” or “lacking confidence”..just unimaginable.
And another big hole is a pass rush specialist. The old niners always had a Fred Dean type. This team was good against the run-but opposing QB’s had plenty of time to throw game after game.
They need pieces is right. And next year,Singletary excuses wont be taken like this year. Either he has it as a coach or he doesnt-next year is the verdict.

hibcbcbc

Yeah. THat mandate needs to come down, and immediately, from Jed York.

If they miss the playoffs next year — I really hope the Yorks sell, because they are incapable of building a winner here.

We have a systemic problem…we have zero football IQ at the top of the organization, which is how you get stuck with guys like McClueless, Singletary, and Jimmy Raye. One’s a decent scout in a suit, ones an X’s and O’s limited HOF linebacker with a whistle, the other a fossil of a generation long since expired…and who didn’t even win in his heyday!

You see other organizations that lose make the moves to try to become a winner — Washington going after Shanahan. Buffalo going after Cowher.

We have Mike Singletary and Jimmy Raye.

Depressing times for Niner fans. It’s not going to get better anytime soon.

(FYI, would be interested to know how Alex improved at the end of the year. He was MARKEDLY worse his last 4 games as defenses adjusted to the one route he throws well–the seam to Vernon)

“Keeping a balance, but at the same time being unpredictable. Them not having an idea of what the heck we’re doing. And make sure that on third down we have a great plan for that.”

And they said Bill Walsh was a genius . . .

Slamdunk

Singletary SHOULD be on the lookout for an alternative at QB. Smith is no guarantee of stability at that position at all, but if they draft a QB in the first round they basically are starting all over again. No problem if Raye does not call plays next year, I was not that impressed with his performance this year, so if Sing makes a change here that’s fine. Keeping Raye just for continuity for Smith makes no sense if neither of them were that hot to begin with.

Realfan49

So what makes this an interesting press conference?

We all could (well maybe not lil’ Timmy) have predicted Singletary’s answers to the banal bay area press questions. Most of the questions were asked last year and got the same answer.

Poor lil’ Timmy’s so limited when he’s not baying for somebody to be fired. No football analysis, no football conclusions to the year, no suggestions for future success. Lots of nothing.

Or as somebody already said, blah blah, blah.

bseismic

Singletary is in denial… How do you balance Raye’s conservative offense with spread formations? He’s just not creative/imaginitive enough to pull it off. You almost need a no huddle offense to pull that off and lets face it, that’s not Singletary’s style.

If Niners go 8-8 in 2010, Sing fires Raye and gets one more year. If they finish below .500 they’re both gone and the Niners hire Jim Harbough.

niner

i like Sing! But honestly he really sounds and acts like a college coach. ” were going to run it with a f”. We have a top 10 Defense. Rah rah rah!n (Bill Walsh said he would beat “tough” guy teams 8-10 times, and he backed it up) Like other teams are all suppose to bend over and say go ahead? But he is learning and maturing which many of us appreciate over NOlan.( our OL gave up a million sacks, but its “good”) Since the Yorks refuse to pay for experience at the GM, VP or HC level, we could have done worse! They key will be the draft: will Sing and scotty pick Baas, Williams, Hill type players, or Gore and Willis type. If its the later maybe we beat the Houstons, Atlanta, Green Bay’s of the league and lose in the playoffs. If its the former, we keep on making az’s of ourselves in the NFL. ( “this will be the last time we are off on the holidays”= Jed York nonsense)